A capon is a cockerel (a male chicken) whose reproductive organs were removed at a young age. Typically, the castration is performed when the chicken is between 6 and 20 weeks old.
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The benefits are a non-aggressive male that can serve as a mother for baby chicks. They also produce ample, tender meat when butchered and as such are a choice poultry meat in some locales.

Due to the high fat content, they are self-basting.

The caponisation of poultry is banned in the United Kingdom on animal welfare grounds, though the meat itself is not illegal.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capon"
Categories: Castration | Poultry farming

The between 6 and 20 weeks old suprised me.

Bill

"Life's tough.It's even tougher if you're stupid."- John Wayne

" We hang petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."- Aesop

Lt.Mike wrote:Ron you've said "The bird, after butchering, must age for 2 -3 days for the meat to become tender. " Are you saying that if we let it sit in the fridge for a couple of days before cooking the meat will improve?

Mike ... Yes. Just like beef, the muscle tissue breaks down to make the meat more tender. In other words, the rigor mortis runs its course and allows the meat to become soft again. The younger the chicken, the more tender it will be. Typically, chicken for frying is butchered 6 mos old or less. 6 mos to 1 yr old's are good for roasting. Any older equals stew or soup meat. Hope this helps.

Mike ... Yes. Just like beef, the muscle tissue breaks down to make the meat more tender. In other words, the rigor mortis runs its course and allows the meat to become soft again. The younger the chicken, the more tender it will be. Typically, chicken for frying is butchered 6 mos old or less. 6 mos to 1 yr old's are good for roasting. Any older equals stew or soup meat. Hope this helps.

Yes! this helps very much thank you!
I'll looking for the first rooster to go after me that my daughter hasn't named. Mike.

I've not smart enough to do vent sexing. We'd caponize once they were large enough to see the difference in the combs. Also, we'd buy cockeral chicks, so the odds were pretty good we weren't wasting the shot.

Timing in life is funny-- my neighbor gave me a high mileage rooster over the weekend. I'll let you all know how he tastes as Coq au Vin!

Ron, I discused it with my wife and planned on picking out a rooster for Sunday dinner. I won't have to worry about making the dicision though one made it for me. I went out after dinner tonight to close them in for the night. It was warmer today, 60 degrees so I had shorts on. Wouldn't you know that one of the roosters was hiding in the shadows sitting still and waiting for me to pass. When I did that little SOB ran up and nailed me on the ankle but good! Damn that hurt! I looked and he wasn't wearing a leg band so he was one of the un-named birds that my daughter wouldn't miss. Think I have my volenteer!
Mike.

I can picture that ........ Its good to bleed them out, too. If you pluck them, dip in scolding hot water first. Makes it a lot easier. Here's a good link for info Butchering Poultry . Let us know how it goes .....

Ok, I butchered up one of the roosters last Sunday and everything went well. With the directions from the link it all went as it should. I bagged it and into the fridge it went. We waited until Thursday to bake it. It was indeed more tender but still was no bird from Purdue. The leg quarters being heavy were dark brown and while the white breast meat was ok there was barely enough for one serving. The leg meat was very gamey too. It was so gamey that I'd wonder if it would even be good for soup.
One other thing is that it is evident now that there is now way we are going to get our daughter to eat a meal from one of the birds she helped raise.
Does anyone in NJ want a big Rhoad Island Red rooster. They are good looking birds and I've got six too many!
Mike.

if you want to raise some succulent chicken for your table, whether it's a whole chicken or not, call McMurray Hatchery... get some (10 - 12 - 25 ... whatever) Cornish X Rock female "stock"... raise them as suggested elsewhere, and just make sure to harvest before 12-15 weeks of age.

you really won't believe how big a chicken can get in 12 - 15 weeks, until you've raised some of these as i suggest. just as a test, you can get some additional "egg-laying stock", such as the excellent, multi-purpose Rhode Island Red as already suggested. the Cornish X Rock crosses will easily be four times (4X) as big inside the 12 weeks - a somewhat unfair test, but a good comparison between a "meat breed" and a "multi-purpose breed", nonetheless. this is to be expected, as the C X R are bred to be quick-growing meat birds... they can't possibly get tough in 15 weeks!
Mike, seriously... as my wife would say... "don't go there!" and just sell or give away the roosters... no offense to the Coq au Vin fans out there... the stew-pot was invented for a reason, after all!

for my 1.50/each, in 12 weeks to get a 5-8 pound bird, even at today's "chicken feed" prices, you're getting a good, meaty bird, with no preservatives, prepared by your own hand for the table. you just can't beat that.
sincerely,
dave

Mike I am on the other side of the state, top of the deleware bay.
look up supawana refuge, that is where I am at
yes mexicans only eat fresh chicken.
if you want to eat reds, they get butchered at 8 weeks. after that shoe leather.

Unless you want hatching eggs or you just like to hear the rooster crow don't bother with them. I only get hens and if by chance they start looking like roos. I cut my losses and put them in the turtle basket. I don't' want any more roosters "bothering" my girls.